


the ringbearer

by link_of_time80



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-03
Updated: 2020-09-03
Packaged: 2021-03-07 01:13:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,479
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26268547
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/link_of_time80/pseuds/link_of_time80
Summary: They wheeled around a corner and suddenly they were in the open. The world seemed to slow and quiet. The blood pounded in her ears, but she could see shouting all around her. The hairs on her neck stood on end. Ty Lee felt the shadow loom over her. But she caught sight of Azula and a weight lifted from her shoulders.The princess was alive! She had climbed the half-crumbling wall above the Great Western Gate and was dancing upon the battlements, dragging crackling streams of lightning through the air around her. Her face was pulled back in a snarl of fierce determination.KHHHRACK!The shadows rose from beneath them and leapt aside as lightning shot through the air above their heads. The rolling roar of thunder cracked straight through the chaos. Wind beat at their heads and the horses screamed in fear, but they were jammed in from all sides and had nowhere to go but forwards.KHRRACK!Above their heads, the Fell beast roared in fury but that was nothing compared to the terrible, blood-curdling cries of the Nazgul, relieved only by the rolling roar of thunder.
Kudos: 1





	the ringbearer

A rambunctious wind wound its way through the Shire, carrying with it the first chill of Autumn and the smell of Kanna’s freshly baked plum pies. It was like a small child: pulling hair, plucking at clothes and howling its various emotions to the world – at least, until it got distracted by a couple of discarded hats belonging to a gaggle of children looking for faeries down by Pine Grove.

It was this same wind that kept encouraging Sokka’s little wooden boat toward the western shore of the Bywater. It took a great delight in breezing innocently by whenever he cast his fishing line. Sometimes it would roar until he adjusted his aim then hold its breath the second he released the line – puffing with laughter and plucking at his hair as he pulled the strayed line back in from the bank whilst his sister teased him.

By mid-afternoon, the wind had grown tired of playing this game and swept off to rush through the trees and long grasses that ran along the banks of the Water instead. Not long after it left, Sokka’s dogged persistence paid off and a fish took the bait.

“I caught something!” he crowed, closing his hands around the line and grunting as it sizzled through his gloves. “Spirits! It’s a big one!”

“Careful, Sokka,” gasped Katara, holding the sides of the boat as it abruptly tipped side to side on the water when Sokka stood and carelessly staggered up to the prow. “Watch what you’re doing or you’ll tip us in.”

“It’s fine,” gritted Sokka, plopping down in his seat and clearly straining to hold on. “Just a big fish.”

He waited for the boat to settle a bit before he started pulling in his catch, hand by agonizing hand. It wasn’t long before he had worked up a sheen of sweat and his cheeks were tinged red from the effort.

“Katara – it’s pulling us – toward – the bank. It might snag the line – _ugh!_ ”

He broke of with a groan as he strained to hold the line that had snapped taut in the water.

“ _You’re not getting away from me, fish!_ ” he yelled. “Grab the paddle, Katara. Try to keep us – _spirits!_ Did you see that! _A pike_! A humongous _pike_!”

The pike had risen to the surface, giving them a glimpse of its narrow head and silvery body before it dove back down with thrash of its tail and fought against Sokka with a renewed vengeance. The fishing line began to slip through the homemade gloves, sizzling as the pike gained momentum. But Sokka didn’t give up. Instead, he braced his feet against either side of the prow and threw his whole bodyweight against the line until it stopped slipping away. The muscles in his arms bulged as he began hauling it back in.

Katara had picked up the paddle and started fruitlessly forcing it through the water with all her strength. All she did was swing them off-kilter until the fish dragged them back around. It was as though she were trying to paddle against a tether, all the boat did was flounder laboriously in the water.

“Are you paddling Katara?” grunted Sokka. “The bank is closer!”

“I am paddling!”.

“Paddle harder then!”

“Pull it in faster, _muscles_!”

Again, the line cracked taunt in the water, hissing through the gloves. Sokka’s eyes were squeezed shut and his face was screwed up in effort, clearly it was all he could do to hang on…. but, he couldn’t help himself.

“Why don’t you – argh!” _TWANG._

The line snapped. Sokka, suddenly having nothing fighting against him, tumbled heels-over-head backwards into the bottom of the boat. Katara, paddle still in the water, lost her balance as the boat suddenly jerked sideways and was leaning precariously over the edge until one of Sokka’s flying legs booted her hard in the side and she went tumbling overboard.

“Sokka!” she gasped, but Sokka paid her no heed.

“Aww, my delicious pike,” he moaned unhappily, quite uncaring of a very sodden Katara hauling herself back into the boat. “I nearly had it.”

“Yeah,” scoffed Katara. “I think you mean it nearly had you.”

She rolled into the boat, making sure to _accidently_ flick as much water as possible on her brother.

“No,” said Sokka. “I meant I would have had it if you’d kept us in the middle of the water.”

“So it’s my fault the fish got away?” said Katara, narrowing her eyes.

“Yes,” said Sokka not seeing the dangerous look in his sister’s eyes, as he removed his gloves.

With a mighty scowl, Katara drew as much of the water out of her dripping clothes as she could, bending it into a shimmering orb above her oblivious brother’s head.

 _Splat_.

“Arrgh! _Katara!_ ”

“You’re an orc, Sokka.”

“You made me drop my glove in the water.”

Sure enough, one of Sokka’s fishing gloves was bobbing just out of reach, slowly sinking as it grew more and more waterlogged.

“I didn’t make you do anything.”

“I knew I shouldn’t have let you come,” said Sokka, leaning precariously out over the water to reach for it. “Your job was easy. Just leave it to a girl to screw things up.”

Katara threw her hands in the air in hopelessness and flopped down in her seat, going back to staring into middle distance while Sokka did whatever Sokka did when she wasn’t paying attention.

She wasn’t left alone to brood for thirty seconds when Sokka interrupted her.

“Uh, Katara?” he said apprehensively.

“ _What?_ ”

“Your freaky water magic is scaring the fish away.”

Katara forgot her anger.

“What?”

The boat was bobbing on the water like a cork.

“It’s not me.”

A thick, blanketing silence had fallen over them, broken only by the _thwap thwap thwap_ of choppy waves slapping against the hull of their boat. The raucous wind had fallen still. Katara’s jaw was clenched, her brows raised in not-quite-wonder even as her eyes were attentively careful. Not even Sokka made sound and he was looking around with the grit of a man expecting to be followed.

It felt like if they spoke their words would echo on forever, breaking something that they could never get back.

Beyond Katara, from somewhere within the small woods of willow and cottonwood adorning the eastern bank of the Water, there was a small _whoosh_ that distinctively sounded like an exhale. It was barely a breath, but Sokka and Katara must have felt the disturbance in the atmosphere because they both turned to look the same as if it were a shout. A moment later, and the bracken along the shore groaned and cracked in sudden fury. All bending in opposing directions as though the wind were coming from all directions.

A great beam of light drew itself skyward with the sound of a silver bell being struck. When it seemed as though it had reached the heavens, great ripples of color burst across the sky. Sokka and Katara could only watch with a terrible awe as every color imaginable danced across the sky.

They didn’t notice the surge of the water, nor the small stones along the rocky shore jumping in the air as the ground trembled. What shook them out of their reverence, however, was the mighty blow of the wind. It crashed into their backs with the force of a hammer; Sokka shouted as he landed on his elbow, barely catching Katara from being sucked overboard. It was as though a storm had come out of nowhere, the wind and waves on their backs.

It all happened so fast. They had barely fallen into the bottom of the boat, when there was a grating sound from the bottom of their boat and they were jolted forward as they hit the shore hard. The impossible beam of light was sinking back to the earth, and the swell of wind and water was sinking with it.

As suddenly as it had sprung, it had vanished completely. The only evidence that it had ever happened was their wind-blown hair and their boat, half filled with water, was now beached on the opposite bank.

“What was that?” yelped Sokka, jumping to his feet. “I can’t believe – “

He trailed off, unsure of what it was exactly that he couldn’t believe. But then his face changed when he looked toward the trees, from somewhere within was the source of the light. It fell slightly wide-eyed and reverent.

It was on the same compulsion both brother and sister clambered from their waterlogged vessel and walked up the stony beach to stand before the tree line, entranced. Little did they realize that they were standing on the edge of destiny.

The hairs on the back of Sokka’s neck prickled, and he snapped out of it.

“I wonder if that was a Fire Nation signal,” he said, frowning. “But it felt a bit like – “

“Magic,” breathed Katara.

“ – an earthqua – magic? Katara, no. Wait!”

But Katara was already running.

“It could be Fire Nation!” Sokka shouted after her as he rushed to follow. “ _Katara!_ ”

There was a crash, cursing, and Katara disappeared from his sight.

Looking back, she never was able to clearly recall her journey through the woods. Only that she had the urge to go faster, and faster again until she was flying through the great willow trees that seemed to leap aside for her to pass. Agile and sure, her feet never stumbled or faltered, not when leaping fallen logs, not when barreling down warren pocked ridges. The woods let her be pulled through them. Following the invisible path that her feet knew to follow.

But then, there she was. Burst into a clearing full of knee-high ferns, patches of bluebells and yellow wildflowers, all as windblown as herself. The sun was setting behind her, rays turned a beautiful tawny hue that made the greenery seemingly glow with its own ethereal light, dappled only by the long shadows of the whispering willows. Yet, there were darker shadows still. They lay in wait beneath the leaves of the ferns and crept up behind her.

All of a sudden, Katara’s mind was thrust back into her body, and she stumbled at the weight of it. Her chest burned from breathlessness. The sharp smell of rot rankled her nose. Her brain finally caught up to what she had just done. She stood braced, as though the world could tip at any moment.

“Sokka?”

He didn’t answer.

The shadows in the clearing seemed to grow, it felt like something was standing right behind her, and the hairs on Katara’s whole body stood on end. Her ears were ringing. A shadow flickered at the edge of her vision and Katara turned around so quickly she gave herself whiplash.

“Sokka – ”

Katara let out a blood curdling scream.

The broken body of an orc leered at her from where it was wrapped the wrong way around a tree; crooked arms and legs all bent the wrong way. Horrorstruck, Katara was unable to take her eyes off the creature as she backed away, further into the clearing. Enormous black eyeballs followed her, protruding from a hideous face set upon a broken neck…

 _It’s dead_ , she realized dumbly, right before she stood on something soft and squishy hidden by ferns. The world dropped away from underneath her, she landed flat on her back.

“Katara!” came a distant shout. “ _Katara!_ ”

“I’m over here!” Katara shouted back, sitting up to see what she had fallen over.

She almost screamed again; it was a body. Not an orc, but a boy. Pale and bald, with a strange arrow tattoo on his head. She didn’t know why, but a great wave of sadness washed over her, seeing such an innocent face lost beneath the underbrush. Before she could be horrified by her own actions, she had crawled forward and pulled him into her lap.

“Katara! What in the name of – GOBLIN!” screeched Sokka, as he leapt into the clearing, brandishing a leafy branch like a swat and caught sight of the hideous body thrown against a tree.

“Sokka – “ began Katara shakily.

But she trailed off because the boy’s eyelids had just fluttered. A spark ignited in Katara. This was why she had been drawn into the wood. This boy had made that light and the storm. He needed help and Katara had answered. She sense that this boy was of great importance, but that didn’t matter. She wasn’t going to leave him to be missed among the ferns, lost to his family. The boy’s eyes fluttered again and spurred her to action.

“ARGH! Katara wh – “

“Sokka, just help me,” she cut in, pulling a limp arm over her shoulder. “He needs help. We need to get him back to Gran-Gran. Now!”

Sokka’s face was pale with fright as he looked at the boy with wide eyes, clearly coming to some sort of conclusion as a muscle in his jaw spasmed.

“Katara! He has no weapons. He killed three goblins with his bare hands! And I’ve never seen anyone who looks like him,” he gestured to the boys fluttering yellow and orange robes. “Where did he even come from?”

“Sokka!”

“Katara, he’s dangerous! What if they’re after him. This could all be a set up – he could be a spy! I bet he had something to do with that huge beam of light before! We’ll might be leading the enemy into our home.”

“I’m not leaving him here. I can’t. And I know you wouldn’t either, so hurry up and help me!”

Sokka looked hysterical but, as Katara knew he would, he took the boys other arm over his shoulder.

“Katara,” said Sokka, uncharacteristically serious, “I hope you understand what harm might come from this.”

Every whisper through the trees, every loud footfall made the hairs on Katara’s neck rise. Neither of them said anything more as they carried the boy through the trees, they both felt the eyes upon them. But, even though they were there, the darkness remained uncaught at the edges of their vision. The watchers in the woods were never revealed. No foul creature sprung from the deepening shadows.

Katara thought that when they reached the boat it might have been a relief, no goblin would get them on the water, nothing could spring out from behind a bush, there were less places to hide. Only Katara didn’t feel relief, only dread. She knew Sokka could feel it too. Because despite the sun being down by the time they got onto the water, the darkness had stopped following them. The shadows had slipped away into the folds of night that was seeping across the land from the east, leaving Katara and Sokka both with a deep sense of foreboding.

The boy in Katara’s arms must feel it too, because his peaceful face was pinched as though in a nightmare.

**Author's Note:**

> think avatar the last airbender x lord of the rings world x sword of destiny. sauron is still the bad guy. generally will follow the plot of lord of the rings.  
> feel free to comment your thoughts, kinda just getting a feel for peoples thoughts on the idea. sorry, pretty rough draft.


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